1/19/10

Finding a decent Chinese take away where I live is like looking for a needle in a haystack. It cannot be done. To get good Chinese I have to go to Baaahston into Chinatown for the real stuff. And for good Italian I go to the North End. Do I go into Boston a lot? Hell no. I'm lucky if I cross the bridge to leave the island. So that leaves me with recreating some of my favorite Chinese dishes at home. If any of you are General Tso chicken lovers then have I got the perfect dish for you. This was so so so so good. I'm a fussy eater of my own cooking creations, I have to have perfection or I will not eat it. I scarfed this one down. It was way better than PF Chang's--and that's saying a lot from me. Sorry PF Chang's, I still love you and will still come for the shrimp with candied walnuts & melons.

In a large heavy-bottomed pot, use about one bottle of veggie oil or enough oil to cover your pot about 1/3 of the way full. Heat pot over medium heat until oil reaches 350 degrees F.
Cut chicken into 2 or 3-inch pieces.
In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, cayenne, salt & black pepper, set aside.
In another large bowl mix the flour, cornstarch and salt & pepper, set aside.
In a medium bowl put the panko crumbs in.
Dip the chicken in batches, first in egg mixture, then in the flour mixture and shake to coat. Then coat in the panko crumbs, making sure to push down and get them nice and coated. Line them up on a tray to get ready for frying. It’s best to let them sit for a few minutes to absorb all the dry coatings.
To prepare sauce use a large sauté pan, melt 6 TB of the butter, then add in the orange zest, orange juice, dark brown sugar, hot pepper flakes and Worcestershire sauce. Stir, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and add in the 3-4 TB of plum sauce, bring to a boil again and sprinkle on the cornstarch (use your hands or a sifter to avoid any cornstarch clumps). Stir well, let cornstarch dissolve, taste as you go, it might need a pinch or two of salt. Let simmer a bit till thickened—maybe 10 minutes? Add the last 2 TB of butter, stir until melted.
Carefully place chicken in hot oil and fry in small batches until golden and crispy; should take about 5 - 8 minutes. Transfer cooked chicken to paper towels to dry a bit. (this recipe belongs to dawn finicane)
Add the cooked chicken to the sauté pan with the sauce and toss until evenly coated. Then add in the red pepper strips and pecans, toss again and serve with white sticky rice.

I shed the same tears over the lack of good Chinese food in our part of the world. However, there's a restaurant near Providence that does the General Tso's coating on chunks of cod, and it's absolutely delicious. Have you tried that?

Love General Tso's!! I have to make my Chinese at home because when we eat it out I don't feel so well after - so glad to have this recipe from you and the photo makes me want to dig right in - even if it isn't even 5 AM yet!

Dawn this is some chicken I can get into. I can't touch the stuff at the Chinese restaurants, it always makes my toes and fingers swell - but this, this I could totally do at home and know exactly what I was putting into it! You are awesome!

WHOA! That looks amazing Dawn! This is my daughter Robin's FAVORITE dish when they order Chinese. I've gotta try this soon.We have a good Chinese place close by but I still like trying to make my own........why?Basically...I'm thrifty....not cheap...thrifty......that's my story and I'm stickin' to it... :)

I know what you mean about Chinese take out. There has to be someplace near here that is decent, but I have lived here 30 years and have not found it yet!We had a super take-out place in Michigan where I used to live. My NYC daughter takes me to some fabulous place in Chinatown to eat- very family style is all I can remember about it. But it's sooo good.Your photo is fabulous! The darkness of the sauce and the chunky pieces of chicken! It's making me very hungry.

Hi, I wasn't sure how to contact you so I left a comment here. Your blog is really great and I wanted to invite you to join our food & wine socialnetwork @ http://www.tasteandshare.com. If you sign up you can share links, rss feeds and photos from your own blog.

Oh, this is good. Good for you for coming up with this on your own. It's hard for us to get good Chinese too. We have an excellent place not too far, but far enough, so I would love to make something like this at home.

Hi Dawn! Thanks so much for this recipe, my daughter has requested this for her 12th birthday next weekend. We don't usually get to eat Chinese out because of the MSG factor so this will be a real treat! I'll let you know how it goes...

Hi Dawn! I just made this....and it was amaazing! thanks for such a great recipe! The only thing that went wrong was the cornstarch clumped up when I put it in the sauce...next time I will do as you say and maybe mix it with some water first before!

about vanilla sugar blog

Unique eats, creative recipes, as simple as possible.What drives me to create? Seeing dishes in restaurants, meals created on TV, recipes in cookbooks/online, and I always think to myself why didn’t they add this or why did they leave out that? Love to question, love to research, and love to learn about combining different flavors and textures in recipes.Recipe creations please email: vanillasugarblog@aol.com